In Loving Memory of Square Checkbox
Nikita Prokopov (Hacker News):
As you can see, even the checkmark wasn’t always there. But one thing remained constant: checkboxes were square.
Why square? Because that’s how you can tell them from radio buttons[…]
[…]
You see, people on the Web think conventions are boring. That regular controls need to be reinvented and redesigned. They don’t believe there are any norms.
That’s why it’s common to see radio buttons containing checkmarks[…] Or square radio buttons[…]
Apple now uses rounded, sliding buttons for checkboxes in both Mac and iOS settings. Apple Reminders and OmniFocus both use rounded checkboxes for tasks. And Apple’s visionOS design resources recommend circles with checkmarks in them.
Anyway, with Apple’s betrayal, I think it’s fair to say there’s no hope for this tradition to continue.
I remember reading Tog On Interface back in the day and thinking that Apple had the ultimate grasp of UI design, and their using round checkboxes these days is just… plain… wrong.
Previously:
2 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
"Not to fact-check a fun blog post or anything, but, no, visionOS doesn't have circular checkboxes."
@Nat Thanks. The Figma file that Apple is making available currently does have circular checkboxes. If this is inconsistent with the built-in visionOS controls, I guess that raises more questions.
